Octomore - a lost distillery - and a new hyperpeated
Islay malt from Bruichladdich.

Disclaimer: Most of this material was googled up
off the web and
I'm just filling in the holes, blending, fact checking, and updating as
needed. Right now I'm obviously free-associating... Oh, I've attributed all the material below
that I've "
borrowed"...

When I found this URL free in August 2002 I was shocked - just shocked!
I immediately decided to pick it up and started the communal PLOWED domain
babysitting project. We have absolutely no intention of either
using this domain maliciously or for leverage for financial gain. I've
merely appointed myself to be the happy babysitter for PLOWED until the folks at
Bruichladdich decide they'd like to take possession of it. At that
point we'll gladly turn it over and trust that Jim McEwen and the boys will
compensate PLOWED appropriately for our time and efforts to bring it in off the
street and "babysit" their domain during their period of inattention.

As for "appropriate" compensation we're primarily
interested in a suitable amount of cask strength whisky - especially a series of
Octomore samples as they mature over the years. Some rare samples of old
Bruichladdich will also be well received.

Octomore - The Lost Distillery

"Following the success of the Port Charlotte, a small amount of a third malt is to be distilled at
Bruichladdich. Octomore, on the hills above Port Charlotte, is a farm where the versatile James Brown - piper, policeman, light houseman, and farmer - rents out his excellent holiday cottages. In the farm's barns is the site of a small, ancient distillery that has long since disappeared, though signs remain in some of the outhouses of its presence."

"Bruichladdich lies directly across Loch Indaal from Bowmore but, unlike it, can be plainly seen on its shore-road site. To the south is Port Charlotte which used to have its own distilleries. Octomore went out of business in 1852, although its dilapidated buildings can still be seen; Lochindaal was dismantled in 1929 and taken over by the Islay Creamery."
http://www.uisge.dk/ud/bruichladdich.html

Octomore - The Hyperpeated Islay Malt

Reports from the recent peating levels tested for this malt
indicate it ended up being about 80 ppm! Unbelievable!
Although Bruichladdich is selling casks of Bruichladdich and Port Charlotte,
they refuse to sell any casks of Octomore as of October 2002. PLOWED is
working diligently to try to find a way to get one of these casks, but we're not
hopeful. We'll just have to buy it one bottle (or case) at a time in 8 -
10 years!

"Following the success of the Port Charlotte, a small amount of a third malt is to be distilled at
Bruichladdich. Octomore, on the hills above Port Charlotte, is a farm where the versatile James Brown - piper, policeman, light houseman, and farmer - rents out his excellent holiday cottages. In the farm's barns is the site of a small, ancient distillery that has long since disappeared, though signs remain in some of the outhouses of its presence. This will be the heaviest peated whisky on Islay at 60ppm."
http://www.bruichladdich.com/distilling_program.htm

"This one will be called Octomore and will be the heavy- weight of the three. The old Octomore Distillery resided on the farm adjacent to the old Lochindaal Distillery warehouses, now owned by
Bruichladdich. They are being used to keep the new Port Charlotte malt. The source of the spring water being used to reduce the new Bruichladdich malts is on the land of the Octomore farm."
http://www2.sbbs.se/hp/buxrud/news.htm

"Octomore Single Malt Aimed to be the peatiest whisky on
Islay.
Not yet available - first distilled 4th April 2002 "

Recently Bruichladdich implemented a new water management
program to use only water from Octomore to dilute the entire Bruichladdich
line. Great myth and complex image building potential here. Works
for me anyway. We start with Bruichladdich's website:

"Tankers of spring water from the well at Octomore were filled by pump for shipment to the mainland for use in the bottling of the new Bruichladdich bottlings due out at the end of August. Bruichladdich is now to be released at 46% Vol instead of the standard 40%. To reduce the whisky from the cask strength to 46% we have decided to use Islay Spring Water – the only whisky to do so.

The water from this spring, on James Brown’s farm at
Octomore, gurgles to the surface no more than two metres from the fast flowing, dark, peaty - coloured water of the burn, but yet is fantastically clear and cold. The water has percolated through the rocks to emerge from where the older and harder Gneissose Syenite and the softer medium grained Arkose
grey/green sandstone sheer."http://www.bruichladdich.com/islay_water.htm

Sounds like a very interesting shift that we'll need to watch for in all their
new bottlings.